Many Routes Open to Smuggling Mobile Phones

Name: Many Routes Open to Smuggling Mobile Phones
Uploaded: 2019-09-20T07:06:08Z
Duration: 20 min 32 s
Description: The mobile phones sold on the black market in Indonesia are mostly smuggled into the country from countries such as China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The mobile phones sold on the black market in Indonesia are mostly smuggled into the country from countries such as China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

· 3 minutes read

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The mobile phones sold on the black market in Indonesia are mostly smuggled into the country from countries such as China, Hong Kong and Singapore. These black market mobile phones are smuggled through small ports and small islands to destinations like Batam Island.

In August, Kompas tracked down a number of unofficial ports on Batam Island that are often used to illegally import mobile phones from Singapore. These small ports are equipped with small piers near residential settlements, and can accommodate speedboats.

One such pier is located near the Barelang 3 Bridge. The pier manager charges the boat’s owner docking and security fees. Other unofficial ports are located near the Barelang 2 Bridge in southern Batam.

The mobile phones smuggled from Singapore are hidden on small islands in the waters around Batam before they are brought in through these small ports, which are not controlled by the Customs and Excise Office. The small islands have become a transit point for smuggled goods, which are then shipped to other parts of the country when customs officers assigned to the Indonesia-Singapore border are not in sight.

A speedboat equipped with three 20-horsepower engines arrives to pick up the smuggled goods, including mobile phones. “The boat is very fast, so it is difficult for customs officials to catch [them],” said U.D., the skipper of a passenger boat in Batam who was once hired to drive a smuggling boat.

Kompas found two vessels with load capacities of respectively 30 tons and 60 tons, which are usually used to transport coral reef fish, docked at a pier on one of the small islands. A speedboat was also docked nearby. The island had a small settlement of only six houses where coral reef fish traders and their families lived.

Comr. Ponco Indriyo, the head of industry and trade at the Riau Island Police special crimes directorate, admitted that some of the small islands around Batam were used for transiting smuggled goods to Batam. "There are some areas that we monitor closely, but see, we have to be ‘silent’," said Ponco.

Former Riau Islands Narcotics Agency head Brig. Gen. (Pol) Benny Setiawan said that one of the closely monitored islands was Siali Island. "It is suspected that Siali Island is a transit point for illegal goods, both to and from abroad," he said.

The Jakarta Metropolitan Police announced on Monday that it had seized 5,572 mobile phones from China, Hong Kong and Singapore that had been smuggled through Batam to Jakarta.

The Customs and Excise Directorate General at the Finance Ministry disclosed in April that it had seized 20,732 mobile phones smuggled to Jakarta through Batam. The mobile phones had been distributed from Batam to Banten’s Salira Beach by speedboat.

The Trade Ministry’s Consumer Protection and Commerce director general, Veri Anggriono Sutiarto, said that mobile phones must be imported to the country through those ports that the government had designated. "Imported mobile phones should enter Indonesia through certain seaports and airports," Veri said.

(NDU/BKY/IGA/ILO)

Editor:

naranasrullah

kompascetak illegal trade customs and excise office